Changing from NAT to Routing

jhaines42

Good Day,

I currently have an OpenVPNAS server setup on Ubuntu 18 in my office of around 25 users, The OpenVPNAS server is currently using NAT but this is causing me issues as I can't access remote VPN users computers to do any Maintenance without having to use TeamViewer etc.

I have read up that to access both ways I need to change to Routing? is that correct?

My second question is how easy is this to do without impacting users connected via VPN? Is it as easy as pressing the Change to routing button or will I have to set up different routing?

I have searched for a step by step procedure but can't find anything.

Thanks
Julian

openvpn_inc

Hello Julian,

To allow 2-way communication you do need to use routing. If you change this, it will likely break everything. The reason is that with NAT, no additional requirements are placed on the target network where your resources are that VPN clients want to access. But if you use routing, then your target network must cooperate by routing packets back to the VPN server in order to reach the VPN client subnet.

There is a guide here: https://openvpn.net/vpn-server-resources/reach-openvpn-clients-directly-from-a-private-network/

Good luck,
Johan